Pinkalicious

WOW! Annabel is THREE!

I can not believe my girl is three! The Lord blessed us with an amazing beautiful daughter who is funny, sweet, smart, chatty and girly!

Her favorite colors are: purple, pink and chocolate. So of course we HAD to have a PINKALICIOUS party for her. This year she totally 'got' that it was HER birthday. She woke up on her birthday morning shouting "Good Morning, It's my birthday!"

She was tickled pink over her special day!

PINK PINK and more PINK

Waiting for our guests to arrive

Craft table: decorate your own wand and color a cupcake

The artists

Game: Pin the Star on the wand

This was hilarious watching 3 year old do this. They wore a blind fold and were spun once and helped get to the wall.

Friends

Grammy read Pinkalicious

Lunch time- the food was...

PINK of course

PB& J sandwiches, strawberry yogurt, berries and pink lemonade

PINK velvet cupcakes

The Birthday Girl

Annabel and Morgan

Reagan

Luke

Hailey

Morgan, Hailey and the Birthday Girl

Happy Family

We have a FIVE year old

Howdy Partners- there is a FIVE year old riding around!

William wanted a "Cowboy" birthday party and that is just what he had. We thought having it mid-morning we would be able to beat the heat. YIKES- it was close to 90 degrees by noon. Lots of liquids for these cowboys.

Cowgirl Annabel and Cowboy William

Each friend was given a hat, bandanna and badge

All the friends ready for grub and then some games

Fueling up

Lasso the Star

Relay races- pony stick race

Sack Race

Hop Hop

What a FUN celebration it was.

Spoiled with friends, fun, food and gifts.

Thanks for making William's 5th birthday special friends!

Happy Second Birthday Annabel

Annabel Hope turns TWO!
Oh my! Where has the time gone.
Turning Two means you are leaving the baby stage
and entering the toddler stage

Walking into the kitchen first thing in the morning

HAPPY Birthday!

Annabel's special birthday dinner- french toast, fruit, yogurt
and for dessert Funi cupcakes with pink frosting.
All of her choosing!

Happy Girl!

YUMMY!

Present time- her own baby stroller

And a balance bike complete with helmet
She can almost reach the ground.
You are at such a sweet age!
Your favorite foods are: cheese, crackers, fruit and pizza

YOU ARE:
* FULL of determination, do it your self

* Brave and often have no fear (scary for this mommy)
* A Joy, delight and treasure
* Loved

YOU:
* Amaze us with your ability, strength, and agility
* Adore your Big Brother
* Love to be scared and chased
* Have your own opinions
* Love Elmo and dolls
We love you Annabel Hope!

August recap

August Summary-

With summer coming to a close we packed tons of FUN filled activities to
help close our summer. Facebook continues to bless us with playdates and
new friends here in San Antonio.

(On a side note: I really thought I was on the ball. I had done a TON

of posting, wanted to "cuten up" the blog and instead made a mess of it.
Of which, I had NO idea how to undo it. After tinkering about I think I adjusted
most of it. Sorry for the tardiness. It is my hope to post more frequently
than I have and make some corrections in formatting.)

Hay Farm-
hanging out with the Rickstrew family
We started the month out by heading out to Fairview, Texas to meet some
new friends.
They live on a hay farm and boy did we have fun playing, feeding chickens,
swimming, tractor rides and more.

Annabel grabbing a handful of seeds to feed the chickens

William and Riley checking on the chickens that they chased into the coupe.

"Look an egg"

A Stroll down the Riverwalk

Stopping in the shade for a cute picture

Annabel loves her independence and doing things herself.

Trip to California

The kids and I headed to CA for 10 days to hang out with friends and family.
They travel awesome. I have learned a few tricks to help keep them occupied
and fed to make the 4 hours and 20 minutes flight go as quickly as possible.
(flip books, coloring books, playdough (limit 2), animal crackers, stickers,
and don't forget to ask the flight attendants for cups with lids and straws so you can
put snacks inside to make noise)

The most stressful time for me when flying by myself is the curb to the gate.
Once we check our bags, get through security, use the restroom and find the
gate it is smooth sailing.
We arrived in Tuesday mid day and Wednesday morning
we headed to Truckee.

Annabel had a ball rearranging the booster chairs.

I can carry them where ever I want. :)

"Let's make a circle and sit together"

I think I will take a break- Thank you

Pappa and William sharing stories

Return of:
Thrilling Thursday

Since we were in Truckee on a Thursday (purposely planned) we hosted
playgroup at Donner Lake. Oh how wonderful it was to hang out with our friends.
ALL the kids are getting so big! There no are more babies in the group- only toddlers
and kids. The big kids are turning 4 and the little ones are turning 2. My/our hearts
were so happy to play at the beach. It was as though no time had passed. Oh how we
miss our Thrilling Thursday Group!

Annabel chillin' waiting for snacks

William starting his sand castle

The group

A Day at the pool
William and Pappa making silly faces during lunch

Auntie Amber and the kids came up to Truckee for the day

Grammy and the kids heading to the pool

POOL time

Timothy and William being trains

BEAUTIFUL afternoon on the deck

Mommy and her kids enjoying the beautiful late afternoon.
We LOVE Tahoe

Annabel all dressed and ready to go- where who knows.
Styling in Pappa's sunglasses and lego tote filled with who knows what inside.
That girl LOVES sunglasses and bags. LOL

Oakland Zoo
We met Auntie Jackie, Beka, and Kira at the zoo.

Nonie, Beka, Grammy, Annabel and William walking to see the giraffes.

Snack time

Driver in training
Beka taking William for a drive and Grammy assisting. This was histrical- the wheel chair
was brought so Nonie could ride and enjoy the zoo, however, she wanted to walk.
So Beka and William wanted to make sure it was used. They took turns riding
and driving. Beka could hardly see over the top of wheel chair hence lots of
crashing, giggles and "watch out".

Miss INDEPENDENT!

The cousins playing.

William and Beka are so cute together.

Drawing what they see.

Look at the HUGE spider

Afternoon backyard FUN

William did not nap today.
When Pappa gets home from work he almost always retreats
to the pool for some down time. William was thrilled he was home and
wanted to go swimming- right now. However, I told him Pappa needed some down time
and would be reading by the pool. So he wanted to join him. William gathered some
books and found the wagon to have his down time.

After some down time he rode the scooter,

pulled Annabel in the wagon,

Annabel climbing out when the ride was over,

and played some teatherball,

Early Birthday Celebration for William
Now that we live in San Antonio, it makes it difficult to share in birthday celebrations.
William had been very worried about NOT having his cousins at his birthday party.
We had always had most of them present.
So since we were in town we thought we would have an early cousin party.
William wanted a "pirate" party.

Timothy, William and Caelyn playing in the wagon.
Caelyn tired so hard to pull the boys.

Grammy and Annabel

Chilling in the shade

The BIG 4 almost 4 year old

Bring on Dinner!
William's choice- pork roast, yummy potatoes, french bread,
grilled aspargus
AND ice-cream cake.

"High Five"

The BIG kids

Uncle Brian, Caelyn, Uncle D, and Kira

Cousin talk

William picked out the cake at Baskin Robins.
One afternoon we went to the store to choose the ice-cream cake.
I told William that he could choose an design and ice-cream flavor.
(with my suggestions of course)
When asked what kind of ice-cream he said "ice-cream".
He ended up with white cake and Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream.
(my favorite)

Our HAPPY boy!

Since we were almost all together (missing Daddy) we thought we would
attempt a family picture. Not bad with 15 people.

Lightening the candles-
William wanted the number 4 candle AND 4 white candles.

Make a wish

The cake was a HUGE hit!

Burning off a little energy before saying good-bye

Playdate with our good friends the Monroe's

Lunch time

So ready to take on the world

Building forts

Park FUN

Weee

I think I can climb up the slide if mommy is not looking.

OK- I will slide down

Rid'em Cowgirl

Whew! Another fun filled month. School is starting soon and

so are all of our Fall activities. (school, AWANAs, Bible Study, MOPs, swim lessons)
We are looking forward to seeing the same people, have a regular schedule and make new friends.
HAPPY FALL!
(be sure to check out "older posts" right corner)